Where the Heart Is
by Numia
Summary: Iruka felt that her life was perfect; until her daughter, Naruto, met Uchiha Sasuke. Iruka's life is suddenly like a hurricane, and the new neighbor is not helping any. Warnings Genderbending, KakaIru, SasuNaru.


Iruka's life was perfect for her: It was routine and orderly for the most part; because when you have a daughter like Naruto, nothing stays orderly or routine, but they made it work. Iruka felt that her life _was_ perfect; until her daughter met Uchiha Sasuke. The new neighbor isn't helping much either.

Warnings: Genderbending, cursing, teenage pregnancy and dogs that dig up gardens.

Fem-Iruka, Fem-Naruto and future genbent characters. Have fun reading!

**Chapter One:**

Their house was quaint; big enough for both Iruka and Naruto. It had a decent size back yard, a kitchen, living room, three bedrooms, and two and a half baths. It was perfect. Well, it was, until Uchiha Sasuke moved in with them.

Iruka was protective of her daughter, Naruto. When Sasuke started dating her, Iruka was skeptical. Sure, the boy was polite, came from an honorable family, got good grades; but Iruka knew that, as it usually does with Naruto, if something can go wrong it will. And, boy did it ever. Iruka found the pregnancy test in the bathroom trashcan.

It took Iruka a week to calm down and accept that her adopted daughter was sixteen and pregnant. She thought the shock was over, but then Sasuke came knocking on their door; duffel bags and back packs sat on the porch behind him. He told Iruka that his father kicked him out after he found out about Naruto's pregnancy. Due to Naruto's constant pleading and because she truly felt sorry for the boy, Iruka allowed Sasuke to live with them.

That was two months ago, and ever since then chaos has been picking up momentum in the house. Naruto was a tornado before; add hormones and an Uchiha Sasuke, and she became a tsunami.

"Sasuke, you bastard! Get out of my sight, get out of this house!"

"You idiot! Watch where you are throwing things!"

Iruka sighed loudly. She started to grade papers at her computer desk when the fight broke out. This was the daily ritual now: shouting and flying cookware. "My poor pots and pans," Iruka pouted.

Naruto came waddling out of the kitchen. It had only been two months but a baby bump was beginning to show prominently. The blond teen was currently wearing one of Sasuke's blue shirts, she had black leggings underneath. Her hair was in disarray; spilling from its ponytail.

Naruto slumped onto the couch, arms folded over her chest. Iruka glanced over from her desk at her pouting daughter. "What did he do now?"

"Called me fat," Naruto huffed. She grabbed some chocolate mints from the glass bowl on the coffee table.

"Naruto, you have to learn how to control your hormones. I can't keep buying new pans."

Naruto glared at her mother, "Well, then kick him out. I don't deserve to be treated like that!"

Iruka glared back, "You're the one that got pregnant, he's the father, and you both have to find a way to deal with it. Preferably, one that doesn't involve breaking my cookware!"

"Stop eating chocolate, it has caffeine in it; that's bad for the baby." Sasuke stalked out of the kitchen and stood behind the couch.

Naruto's face grew red and her cheeks puffed out, "Shut up!" She pelted some mints at her boyfriend.

Iruka threw her pen down on the desk, "Why don't both of you leave the house! Go find Gaara and Sai or something! Go for a walk! I don't care! Just stop destroying my house!"

The desk chair scraped against the wood flooring as Iruka got up. She marched into the wrecked kitchen. She started hefting pots from the floor and put them in the sink. The cool spring breeze that wafted in from the open window did little to cool the hot-headed teacher down.

"Look Sasuke, Iruka's mad now, and it's your entire fault!"

"My fault? You were throwing things and being an idiot!"

"Out!" Iruka shouted. She heard them bickering as they walked out the front door.

Iruka removed the hair-band from her ponytail. The brown tresses tickled her shoulders; she slipped one of her drooping tank top straps back onto her shoulder. Iruka glanced around the kitchen and noted the scratches that littered the wall – from Naruto's pan throwing no doubt.

Iruka grabbed the kettle near the stove and shoved in under the running faucet. She slammed it down onto the gas range and turned on the burner. She started furiously scrubbing at the pots in the sink.

"Damn pregnant teens," she mumbled.

Part of her knew it was wrong to blame Naruto and Sasuke, but g-dammit! She gave Naruto _the talk_. Though Naruto's pregnancy was on the top of her list of issues, there was still the fact she, herself, was only a substitute teacher; she was not making much money. Sasuke had a job at the local grocery store, but again, he was only making minimum wage. Soon, the mortgage and taxes and bills would not be the only things they had to pay for – and they were expensive enough. Soon diapers and clothes and formula would be added to the list.

A few tears skimmed Iruka's eyelashes but she held her breath and blinked them back. The kettle erupted with a screech; Iruka removed it from the stove, and pour the hot water into a orange mug. She dunk a teabag in it a couple of times before tying the tail part around the handle. She grasped her mug as she stepped over to the window: she could see her garden, or lack thereof, in the back yard. The branches of the willow tree in the neighboring yard hung over the tall, brown fence into her yard. A swinging bench was positioned beneath the shading branches. Behind that was a little white shed, in the corner, where Iruka kept the rakes and lawn mower.

"Speaking of mowing," Iruka whispered as she stepped outside into the afternoon sunlight. She took one look at the grass: _Sasuke has to mow the lawn again, _she thought.

Her attention was drawn back to her unkempt garden. The sun was a little bright, but she swore she saw dirt flying from it: The breeze was not that strong. She blocked the sun with her hand and squinted. Sure enough she saw dirt being flung from her garden; it hit the fence with a quiet 'plat'.

Iruka strode over to the disturbance: There was a small tan pug digging in her garden. His darker, wrinkled muzzle was wrapped around a large ham bone. His brown ears flopped wildly as he burrowed his way into the ground.

"Hey," Iruka shouted, "damn dog! Don't dig in my garden." She did not know if the dog would bite, she refrained from trying to pick it up. It had the audacity, though, to stop and look at her with sad puppy-dog eyes.

Iruka sighed, "Well, you have to understand that a garden is not a place for bones," she tried to let him down easy. _Can't believe I'm trying to reason with a dog, _she thought.

The pug continued its woeful act, occasionally letting in a whimper. Iruka knelt down and stuck her hand out for the dog to sniff. He did so cautiously; even dared to rub his head against her hand.

Iruka smiled as she scratched behind the dog's ear, "I'm feeling generous today, and you are cute, so I guess I'll let you bury your bone here," the pug let out a low bark and picked up its bone again.

"Not like anything is going to grow there anyway," She slowly brought herself up.

"Oh, I'm sorry," a deep voice cut in, "is he ruining your garden?"

Iruka looked over at the fence and was greeted with a half faced man. She stared wide-eyed and open mouth: The lower half of his face was covered by a handkerchief, and one eye covered by an eye-patch. The skin that Iruka could see was pale, and he had wild, silver hair that stuck up and to the side.

"Oh, um...no its fine..." Iruka looked from her holey garden, and the dirty pug back up to the man, "it's not like anything was growing in it. I – I haven't even planted things yet, considering it's just the beginning of March. Is this your dog? He's adorable...I'm sorry I'm blabbing."

The man let out a deep chuckle, "Yeah, he's one of mine. He must have gotten under this part of the fence. I'll fix it up for you so it doesn't happen again. If that's alright with you?"

"Oh, ok. No! I mean it's fine really. So, you bought this house then?"

"Yeah, the movers are arriving tomorrow with my stuff. I'm Kakashi, by the way."

He extended his over the fence. Iruka smiled and slipped her hand into his bigger, calloused one.

"Iruka. Obviously I'm your new neighbor. Welcome to the neighborhood," Iruka retracted her hand after they shook, "so what's with the handkerchief, if you don't mind me asking?"

Kakashi stared blankly at Iruka, "Wha- oh," he removed the fabric; Iruka blushed at the perfectly sculpted face in front of her, "allergies. This lawn is atrocious so I decided to clean it up a bit."

Iruka peered over the fence. Indeed the grass was overly tall now. It came up to Kakashi's mid-calf; it came up to Iruka's knees.

"Are you hacking at you grass with a machete?"

Kakashi lifted up the long knife, "Oh, yeah, well, my mower is kind of in the mover truck," he laughed and scratched the back of his head.

"You'll get nowhere with that. You could just use mine if you want."

"Oh, well, thank you. I might take you up on that offer. Hey, would you like some tea? I mean, it's the least I could do for my dog tearing up your garden, and you lending me your mower."

"Oh, well, I actually just made some, and I'm sure that you don't want me in the way while you're trying to move in."

"No, it's fine. Really, I must insist. I'll meet you up front?"

"Oh – okay," Iruka stuttered.

"Pakkun, come," Kakashi called – the pug instantly dropped it's bone and ran past Iruka and under the space in the fence.

Iruka heard Kakakshi whistle as he walked towards the front of his house. Iruka sighed for the umpteenth time that day, and scurried back into her house. She quickly placed her mug on the counter, and retied her hair; grabbed a black cardigan and walked out her front door.

So, what do y'all think? I've been entertaining this idea for a while. I wish there were more genderbender KakaIru stories. Questions, comments, suggestions? All are welcome. Here's some future characters for the story (I will gender bend more characters): Fem-Gaara (Gaara will NOT be paired with Neji, I refuse!) and Fem-Sai; they are going to be Naruto's best friends. (Oh, and the reason I didn't change Naruto's name to Naruko (which is usually used for female Naruto) is because I'd end up forgetting and would just type 'Naruto' anyway. I already had some mishaps where I called Iruka a 'he' in this story). I also have an OC made, she's going to be one of Iruka's friends and fellow teacher, but I don't want her to have major impact on the story, so if that happens let me know. I made her specifically for Gai (who will show up eventually). Is Sakura going to be in this? Possibly. But for early chapters she might just be mentioned; because this is mainly about Kakashi and Iruka.


End file.
